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anyway to watch earth in live ?

Hi, In wikimapia.org and in google earth we can view only the photos of earth locations (that too taken sometime before). Is there any application or site that shows earth in live ? Or atleast the recently updated images of all locations ..

There are webcams at many monuments and parks and the like. But there is no way to view the entire earth in realtime, no. Thankfully, there is no network of millions of video cameras video taping everything happening everywhere.

Thankfully, there is no network of millions of video cameras video taping everything happening everywhere.

If so, then any idea of how the entire locations in the earth is photographed and available at google earth? What I feel is when there could be a still camera that could capture all the locations in image format why cant be there a video camera set up at the satellite as an advancement of the existing technology? I fear whether this is already available for military operations and might have banned for public use. Any help appreciated. (But imagine how thrill it would be to watch world in live at arial view...)

There are a small number of satellites up there capturing these images. These satellites have fancy cameras on them. But they're just cameras. They point in one direction and take a picture of a single location. Yes the military can get a live satellite feed, they can point a satellite at a truck they want to follow in Afghanistan and do so. But not even the military can take a few cameras in space and somehow get a live view of every person in the world at once.

Step back and think about what we're dealing with. One or more satellites orbiting the earth. They have cameras. The satellite can probably change its orientation or move the camera slightly to aim the camera, but otherwise it's just circling the planet in a fixed orbit. There are satellites in orbit above fixed locations instead of circling the earth, but they're less useful to this conversation as they can't be used to map the world.

To take pictures of the entire planet for sites like Microsoft Earth and Google Maps, satellites in different orbits snap photos of the planet as they orbit, forming rings of images.

An operator can't make a satellite point at any location it wishes, as the satellite might not be over that location. If the satellite is currently over China, and you want a picture of Florida, that's going to be impossible. The earth is in the way. It can't move itself to Florida, and there's no way to point a camera through the planet and get a picture of the other side.

You clearly do not live in the UK like I do... we have something like 1 video camera for every 5 people. And they monitor everything we do, it's enough to make you paranoid.

good point. I'm waiting for those loudspeakers in the streets (they have those in some cities) to remind you of your next appointments which will be stored in a central database which in turn will be comprised of all the information they glean from monitoring the entire UK internet traffic .

We can't talk too deeply about politics of the UK here folks, (against the guidelines) however if you're interested in such things and want to take action check out the convention on modern liberty. And that's all we shall say on the matter

It’s not so much about our politics; it’s more about the use of technology to help “protect” citizens. I do feel that the cameras in the streets which monitor crime aren’t a bad thing considering the amount of criminals they do end up helping to catch (most people don’t really have a problem with people having cameras to help catch shoplifters and such). But it’s those sneaky speed cameras which most people like to draw the line at... not that I drive, I love the train lol

PS: Hostpitable, That might be awsome, we could start a UK wide social network where we can attach our location via the cameras to update our twitter accounts... "Visited Starbucks 9:11am GMT" and have a moving point on google maps "I AM HERE"

I wouldn't say 'the UK' in terms of camera density; rather the cities.

Here in Mid-Wales, there are very few cameras. Maybe in the towns (of which there are few), but there still aren't many unless you're talking cities or large towns.

Then again, in Powys (a county within Wales) the population density is ~25 people/square kilometre. Compare that to Greater London - ~4,758 people per square kilometre. So in the great scheme of things I don't really think that this comment is that relevent Oh well, the 'Post Quick Reply' button is too addictive when you're me.

Jake Arkinstall
"Sometimes you don't need to reinvent the wheel;
Sometimes its enough to make that wheel more rounded"-Molona

PS: Hostpitable, That might be awsome, we could start a UK wide social network where we can attach our location via the cameras to update our twitter accounts... "Visited Starbucks 9:11am GMT" and have a moving point on google maps "I AM HERE"

Thankfully, men haven't reached that breakthrough. Imagine the privacy that such advancements could intrude. Like you'll never know that you're being watched while having a relaxing and smooth vacation outdoors, then the next thing you know is you're on youtube dancing to the beat of numa-numa with your tighty-whities on! Yikes!